difficulty

Friday 9 October, 2015

Difficulty

Nour Kabalan

Miss Dania Adra

English 203

9 October, 2015

    No! This is not acceptable! The normal place for these two girls is definitely not in the street. Shouldn’t they be at school with other children getting the minimum proper education??? The Lebanese constitution imposes protection of children against neglect, abuse, exploitation delinquency and vagrancy (law n. 422, 2002, art.6). The right of every child to learn is ensured by the law as well (legislative decree n26, 1955, art. 17.). I cannot conceive how a mother, no matter how bad her situation is, would expose her daughters to physical and psychological harm or danger! Even worse, why the government, especially the ministry of social affairs, is not interfering to apply the law and stop these atrocities?

 

    This cruel scene has shaken me deep inside and made me able to hear clearly Rousseau’s voice through his text. He is seeking the successful advance of every individual from the state of nature to the social state. This can only be achieved by deep understanding of the “general will” (Rousseau 114) which is the umbrella covering justice, rights, liberty and terms of the “social contract” (Rousseau 114). The man is now bound to abide by the laws imposed by the government and judicially implemented. “So it must be based on agreements” (Rousseau 114).

 

    I am sure that if Rousseau sees this picture today he will be shocked, for, three centuries after the publication of his “social contract”, such an unconceivable violation of the social state persists. A mother who deprives her daughters from their simple basic rights of civil liberty including the right to learn and to have a decent shelter. You might think that I’m a heartless young lady who has never tried misery and thus cannot conceive the unbearable conditions that led to do so. Yet, it’s not the case. I totally understand the mother’s despair but at the same time I believe her healthy enough to seek for a job or have resort to international organization for help (in case she’s a refugee). In addition, public schools in Lebanon are available everywhere; some are even sparing a large percentage for refugees. She has to understand that the “voice of duty has taken over from physical impulses and a sense of what is right has taken over from the appetite” (Rousseau 114). You do not bring children to the world so that they work for you. It’s your duty to ensure their safety. At the same time, the government is delinquent towards this family by encouraging their natural liberty which is in fact a form of slavery. “For the drive of sheer appetite is slavery, while obedience to a law that we prescribe to ourselves is liberty” (Rousseau 115). As far as I know, it is the duty of the ministry of social affairs to take children out of the streets, put them in a decent shelter where they can find warmth, food, toys, education… It is also the duty of the government to guide the mother towards a solution (jobs, refugee camps…).

 

    Abiding by the social order and integrating into the general will entail losses and benefits. These are clearly listed in Rousseau’s excerpts. Obviously the mother in the picture did not gain her civil liberty and cannot consequently distinguish possession from property. Her daughters are not her possession and she shouldn’t exploit them. More importantly, it is not difficult to take this family by the hand and make them reach the social state. Efforts to reach this social justice are the responsibility of the governing body and the family itself. When a man gets rid of his state of nature “he would be bound to bless continually the happy moment that took him from it forever, and out of a dull and limited animal made a thinking being, a man” (Rousseau 115).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

·         Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, “The social contract”, Shifting Narratives: A Reader for Academic Narratives. Sinno, Zane., Bioghlu-Karkanawi, Lina., Fleszar, Dorota., Jarkas, Najla.,

Moughabghab, Emma., Nish, Jennifer M., Rantisi, Rima., Ward, Abir. Beirut: Educart (Middle East), 2015. (P. 113-115). Print.

 

·         Saliba, Issam, “Children’s Rights: Lebanon”, the law library of congress, 2007. www.loc.gov/law/help/child-rights/lebanon.php